How a Pendulum Clock Measures Time: Day 9 Hands-on Learning Activities

The great Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei sat in the cathedral in Pisa watching a lantern swinging back and forth. Soon he realized that the lantern was a pendulum and that each swing took exactly the same amount of time. Making our pendulum clock we decided to try it too.

Here are the simple supplies Tiny gathered around our house.

►a couple of paperclips. One larger one for the pendulum and one smaller one for the hook at the top.
►cardboard to make an easel
►scissors
►spool
►modeling clay
►sharpie or marker

Tiny made an easel out of the card board.

He cut one long piece and folded it back and used some modeling clay to hold it together. I guess you could have easily glued the pieces, but we have tons of modeling clay in our school area. So we used what we have.

Then he added one paper clip at the top and made a long pendulum out of the other paperclip.

Then he added the spool (with thread, okay, we didn’t have an empty one) onto the pendulum and used some more modeling clay to keep it on the pendulum.

He moved the spool up and down the pendulum and tested it to see if it swung the same amount of time  wherever the spool was placed on the pendulum.

Surprisingly, unlike the sand clock, the pendulum was more accurate.

Spending our time doing these easy inventions has not only been fun but a great way to investigate some of our guesses about time.

If you want to make some more easy hands on things to go with your homeschool unit studies, look at one of these.

Day 1: Make a Hair Hygrometer, Day 2: Desert Sand Art, Day 3: Make Zopf (Swiss Style Bread), Day 4: Exploring Edible Cactus (Learning about the Desert), How to Build the Alamo: Day 5 Hands-on Learning (Free Texas Unit Study) and Geoscavenge – A Rock and Mineral Hunt: Day 6 Hands-on Learning, How Does the Power of Ice Shape Mountains? Day 7: Hands-on Learning,How Accurate is a Sand Clock? Day 8: Hands-on Learning and 365 Days Hands-On Homeschool Activities – One for EVERY Day of the Year

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